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The original script for the 1982 pilot, "Give Me a Ring Sometime", did not include Norm Peterson or Cliff Clavin. George Wendt and John Ratzenberger originally auditioned for a minor character, George, and George Wendt was hired for that role.[5][6] George was Diane Chambers' first customer, had one line (consisting of the order, "Beer!") and was intended for only one episode.[5]

Ratzenberger at the 1992 Emmy Awards

Since Wendt was cast as George (who evolved into Norm Peterson),[6] Ratzenberger suggested to the producers that a know-it-all character should be added; this led to the creation of Cliff Clavin.[6] Ratzenberger based his role on a police officer in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Cliff was originally a security guard, but two days before the pilot's filming he was changed to a postman; the producers thought a postman would be more knowledgeable than a guard. Ratzenberger agreed to seven episodes of the first season, but his role expanded.[7]

Cliff is the kind of guy who wishes he'd been a combat Marine, but maybe he was nearsighted or had flat feet and became a mailman. He loves the respect he gets. [...] As for women, Cliff is like the construction workers who whistle at women but turn to a quivering mass when they're face-to-face with a woman. The greatest fear of men is that they won't live up to their expectations.[7]

On the Cheers 200th-episode special, host John McLaughlin asked Ratzenberger about Cliff Clavin. The actor replied that Cliff would describe himself as the "wingnut that holds Western civilization together"; however, Ratzenberger said he would describe Cliff simply as "a winged nut". When McLaughlin asked Ratzenberger if there was any part of him in Cliff, the actor replied that although he was interested in fascinating facts the only part of Cliff in him was that they both wear white socks.

Cliff is a postal worker, and Norm Peterson's best friend. He lives with his mother, Esther Clavin (Frances Sternhagen)—first in his childhood two-story house (which was bulldozed in 1987's "The Last Angry Mailman" after Esther sold it to a convenience-store builder), and then in a condominium (which first appears in the season 6 episode "My Fair Clavin") with a sofabed. He is ridiculed by friends and enemies alike, including Carla (Rhea Perlman) and Norm, for his know-it-all attitude. He appears on Jeopardy! in the season-eight episode, "What Is... Cliff Clavin?" (1990). The postman wins $22,000, but loses it all with a wrong answer in Final Jeopardy (launching into a tirade which frightens off host Alex Trebek). Cliff has a few relationships (mostly short-lived and hopeless) with women, though his attempts to impress other women bound to fail. Then he has a relationship with fellow postal worker Margaret O'Keefe (Annie Golden), which begins during Cheers'seventh season (1988–89). When Margaret becomes pregnant with another man's child in 1993's "Do Not Forsake Me O My Postman", Cliff stays by her side as the baby's stepfather before Margaret returns to the child's biological father.

In "The Barstoolie" (1985) Cliff meets his father, Cliff Clavin Sr. (Dick O'Neill), who left Cliff and his mother years earlier when Cliff was still a child. Cliff later realizes that his father is a fraudster and a fugitive from justice, and will run off again. Cliff does not want to turn his father in; Cliff Sr. disappears, leaving his son devastated.

In the 1993 series finale, Cliff finally receives a promotion. In "The Show Where Sam Shows Up" (1995), an episode of the Cheers spinoff Frasier, Sam (Ted Danson) tells Frasier that Cliff has not left home since he read an article about flesh-eating bacteria; however, Sam then discovers that Cliff is one of two other men with whom Sam's fiance Sheila (Téa Leoni) had had sex. In another Frasier episode, "The Show Where Woody Shows Up", Woody tells Frasier that Cliff almost got married to a mail order bride, but she decided to go back to Bosnia after spending a few days with him. In another Frasier episode, "Cheerful Goodbyes", Cliff has his retirement party at the airport bar; he had planned to move to Florida, but decides to stay in Boston (to Carla's dismay).

According to an April 1–4, 1993 telephone survey of 1,011 people by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now the Pew Research Center),[N 1] Sam Malone was voted a "favorite character" by twenty-six percent of respondents and Cliff Clavin by two percent.[12][13] Choosing a character for a spinoff, 15 percent voted for Sam Malone, 29 percent opposed a character spinoff, and less than 10 percent voted for Cliff.[13][14]

Cliff's appearance on Jeopardy! in "What Is... Cliff Clavin?" received several reviews. In his book Hope, Andrew Razeghi described Cliff as a poster child for psychologist J. P. Guilford for a response to the Final Jeopardy! clue which Razeghi considered neither right nor wrong.[15] Jeffrey Robinson of DVD Talk found the Jeopardy! category topics during Cliff's appearance (including "post office" and "beer") a "riot".[16] In the Jeopardy! fan community Cliff's losing $22,000 (won in two rounds) in Final Jeopardy! inspired "Clavin's rule", discouraging future contestants from attempting the same.[17]

In 1993, Ratzenberger and Wendt sued Host International for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and violating the actors' personality rights. The company had manufactured two robotic toys (one heavyset and the other a postal worker) who, the actors argued, resembled Cliff Clavin and Norm Peterson. The case was twice rejected by "a federal judge in California". At one hearing, the judge ruled that the defendant did not violate copyright because Paramount Pictures had already granted it a license to produce Cheers-based themes and decor for (primarily) airport bars. At another, the judge ruled that the toys did not resemble the characters.[18]